GALLERY OWNER IS ACTING ON ROCKEFELLER'S POPULIST INTENT

Since her childhood in Israel, Nili Brenner has believed that if you can't be an artist yourself, the next best thing is to spend your life surrounded by their finest works. In January she reached what she considers to be the epitome of her goal when she opened the United States' fourth Nelson Rockefeller Collection Inc. gallery, at Plaza Del Mar in Manalapan.

Nelson Rockefeller put together an outstanding art collection, including an unsurpassed collection of pre-Columbian and African pieces. Before his death in 1979, he made plans to offer limited edition reproductions of some of the pieces so people could enjoy them in their homes or offices at affordable prices.

In 1981, carrying out his wishes, the Rockefeller Foundation gave franchises for three Nelson Rockefeller Collection Inc. galleries in the United States -- in New York City, Minneapolis and Palm Springs, Calif. -- and one in Bermuda. Now Brenner has the fourth U.S. franchise. "I had wanted to do this since they began," she says. "Manalapan is an ideal place for this fourth gallery.

"People in this area are pretty knowledgeable about art. Probably more so in general than in many parts of the country because they are the kind of people who are culturally well informed and visit museums when they travel."

The collection includes reproductions of more than 250 art objects, ranging in price from $30 to several thousand dollars. All are limited and certified editions.

There are copies of paintings by Turner and Picasso and cibachromes (mechanically produced lithographs) of works by Cezanne and Toulouse- Lautrec.

There are porcelains such as the Meissen Swan dinner service and reproductions of the bronzes of Rodin and Degas and the sculptures of Frederic Remington, including a small limited edition of Coming Through the Rye.

There are reproductions of Benin bronzes and of Giacometti bronze sculpture lamps gilded with 24-karat gold leaf. Furnishings of Giacometti design have also been reproduced in exact detail along with brasses and folk art from many cultures.

In addition to the Rockefeller pieces, a catalog offers items from the Forbes Magazine Collection, National Trust for Scotland, the Courtauld Collection and major museums.

"While there are always people who prefer to buy an original work from some promising contemporary artist, hoping it will rise in value, we have also always had people who would rather buy a good copy of an established piece," she says. "When Rembrandt was painting, people who couldn't afford his work would buy one of his etchings rather than buying the work of a young contemporary of his period."

Brenner's mother was an artist, but Brenner realized early in her life that she would never follow in her mother's footsteps. She had a good eye, though, and by age 14 was advising family members and friends on paintings to buy for their collections. After graduation from high school, she served in the Israeli army, then immigrated to New York City.

"I was 19 when I discovered Madison Avenue in the mid-'60s and I knew that was where I belonged," she says. "I found a job with Weiner Gallery on Madison Avenue and took courses to learn more about art. I became friends with artists and museum curators and most of the information that I gathered about art, I got from them, not from school."

While working for Weiner Gallery, she dealt in art on the side, getting commissions for sales she made to friends and to other galleries. Among the people she sold a painting to was New York gallery owner and art historian Irving Brenner. She went to work for him, then married him and in 1979 moved with him to Boca Raton where he opened I.B. Brenner Gallery in Royal Palm Plaza.

In 1984 they closed the Boca Raton Gallery to open two in Manalapan. Brenner has his own gallery and two doors away she runs The Nelson Rockefeller Collection Inc.

"There is a good reason for this," she says. "It takes a long time to make people aware of the background and concept of the Nelson Rockefeller Collection Inc. If, when you finally get through to them, the Rockefeller pieces are mixed in with other kinds of art in one gallery, there is a visual problem of what's the Rockefeller art and what's not. We are better off separating the two. And, too, the Nelson Rockefeller Collection is too important a collection to mix with anything else."

In the 15 years they have been married, they have always worked side by side. She likes having him no more than two doors away. "Irving is my mentor and my teacher. He is generous with his fund of knowledge and patient with me. Living with him and learning from him has been the greatest thing in my life," she says.